The Watchtower Attendance Crisis

by metatron 55 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  Consider this:

  If the average congregation has about 83 publishers in the US, then the organization may be sinking into a crisis.

  Take that 83 and consider that half the congregations may have less.

  Take away '15 minute publishers' who don't attend

  Take away completely fake publishers who rarely attend

  Take away increasingly tired publishers who 'feel sick', are depressed, or just want to stay at home and watch TV.

  and what's left? If you have only 50 - 60 people show up , week after week, in Kingdom Halls built to hold more than

  twice that much, you've got a big problem. It's going to be demoralizing.

  If you're an elder, you're headed for burnout, trying to pull answers out of a dispirited flock, while conducting meetings.

  Contributions may decline to the point in where the Hall isn't viable anymore.

  If you're a publisher, you may start to quietly compromise - as you see things slide locally. Maybe you'll eat with

  your df'd kid after all..........

  This is why Circuit Overseers ( and the GB) are worried.

  The Society will have to compromise here and do the unthinkable - create larger congregations that CONTAIN MORE

  APATHETIC WITNESSES! They love to have smaller congregations and small book studies so that EVERYONE IS

  KEPT OCCUPIED WITH 'BUSY WORK'! - but increasingly, this won't work because the congregations won't be viable.

  Can you say more 'assimilation'? This will evolve in the direction of CHRISTENDOM - with folks who show up once a week

  if they feel like it! The problem of shutting down congregations is likely to spread from Japan and Europe to here.

  Unless some world disaster happens - to get Witnesses panicking back to the Kingdom Hall - the Society will be faced

  with shutting down lots of congregations - that can't function anymore. I look forward to many Halls sold off to churches

  which offer day care or other services that Witneses NEVER would.

  Another encouragement to the this process is the inept and stubborn folks at Headquarters - who will do nothing

  while things decay. Thank You, Service Dept., for just being you!

  metatron
• 

  Will Power

  Met

  In that 50 - 60 who attend regularly, how many are a family of 2, family of 4, or even more, counting extended family - grandparents, grown siblings.

  will
• 

  freedom96

  When I was growing up, there was a thriving nearby hall that actually had 5 very large congregations in it, including 3 separate halls.

  They are reduced to one medium sized congregation now.

  I think that is funny, and I hope the trend continues.
• 

  stillajwexelder

  Of course, the WTBTS has gone through a period of consolidation before. Look at the figures around 1978,1979 from yearbooks, bound volumes after the 1975 farce/fiasco. Consolidate the congregations, issue a half-hearted apology, make a few changes, claim it as new light or the holy spirit nudging them in a certain direction and hey presto -- growth may resume again
• 

  Dansk

  the organization may be sinking into a crisis.

  Absolutely brilliant!

  Consolidate the congregations, issue a half-hearted apology, make a few changes, claim it as new light or the holy spirit nudging them in a certain direction and hey presto -- growth may resume again

  I don?t agree! The internet has been the biggest thorn in Watchtower?s side and it?s hurting daily. Younger ones today are more liberated and go to college, play sports and peruse the internet for hours. More and more of us are seeing Watchtower for what it is and exiting. Nope, this time I think it?s a sharp incline that can?t be climbed back up.

  Ecstatic,

  Ian
• 

  Erich

  Unless some world disaster happens - to get Witnesses panicking back to the Kingdom Hall - the Society will be faced with shutting down lots of congregations - that can't function anymore.

  Thats absolutely correct.

  erich
• 

  xjw_b12

  Metatron:

  And if they do have to sell KHs as surplus, that money from the sale will go back to the dubs, who contibuted to it financially and physically, right ?
• 

  Analysis

  My area has so many people moving in that this is not really an issue. Add that to the growth of Spanish Congregations and most Kingdom Halls have anywhere from 3 to 5 congregations meeting at the Halls. So consolidation could occur without selling the buildings.

  I think it would interesting to see the make up of the publishers in the US today. In the early 1960s in my area about 75% of the publishers were white Anglo Saxons. Today it is about 30% Anglo Saxons, 40% African Americans and 30% Spanish.
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  Yerusalyim

  In my wife's old Hall I've noticed this as well. When I first visited there it seemed there were 60/70 there regularly, this past summer I visited there (for the sake of my step son) and there were maybe 40 there regularly. This is Sunday meetings...I have no idea what it looks like through the week.
• 

  RunningMan

  I don't believe that they will be able to recover from this malaise like they did in the 70s. This was not caused by the generation change, although it was a factor.

  This is being caused by the gradual tiring-out of their chronology. Apocalyptic sentiment is at an overall low. The millenium passed without a whimper. And, the internet is illuminating their shortcomings. Add on the pressures of extensive lawsuits, masses of bad publicity, a better informed general population and an incompetent geriatric leadership, and you have a recipe for an organization in crisis.

  A simple regrouping will not help them. They need a complete reformation, but I don't believe they have either the intelligence or the leadership to pull it off.